In the Spring of 1995, my wife, Robin, and I began planning a trip to Europe for our fifth wedding anniversary. One of the highlights of our trip was to be a weekend in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest, where we planned to partake in the local customs.

In preparation for our Oktoberfest experience we began studying the beers of Germany. (In other words, we began drinking all the German imports we could find at our local liquor superstore.) Since our trip included stops in several European countries, we began studying other European brews as well.

As a way of keeping track of the different beers we sampled, we began collecting the bottles. However, it soon became apparent that maintaining a growing collection of bottles wasn't going to be easy. After considering the situation, Robin suggested that rather than collect the bottles, we should just collect the labels.

With that in mind we began soaking the bottles in cold water and carefully peeling off the labels. Once the labels were dry, I ironed them and then placed the labels between the pages of a huge Webster's dictionary to keep them flat.

After our European trip, we continued studying imports and soon expanded our studies to include the multitude of brews from the fabulous Microbreweries popping up all around the country. Of course, we continued to collect labels.

I had originally imagined displaying the labels in a photo album or scrap book. However, the collection remained between the pages of the huge Webster's dictionary.

In the Winter of 1995, I downloaded the Internet Assistant for Word and began experimenting with HTML. After learning HTML and realizing the potential of the World Wide Web, I decided that the coolest way to display my beer label collection was to incorporate the labels into a Web site. Thus, with the help of my scanner, the beer labels moved from pages of Webster's to the pages of the Web and The Beer Label Museum was born.

At this point, there are quite a few labels in the collection and I'm continuing to add new labels to The Beer Label Museum. So come back often to learn about the beers we've been sampling.

Greg